The Gandy Dancer
The Official Publication of
The Alameda County Central Railroad Society
January 2003
New Years Issue.
| The Gandy DancerThe Official Publication of | January 2003New Years Issue. |
| Club Officers: | |
|---|---|
| President Gary Lewis |
Vice President Henry Chandler |
| Secretary Dean Lewis |
Treasurer Cathy Chrisman |
| HO Trainmaster Andy Herrera |
O Trainmaster George Cumming |
| Newsletter Editor Bob Johnson |
Webmaster Jim Ferreria |
| Visit the club website | |
If you have any information that would be of interest to the membership please contact Bob Johnson, so that it may be included in the next issue. The deadline for submitting information for the February issue will be Friday, January 24 with a goal of being mailed and uploaded to the website by Sunday, January 26. Members are encouraged to submit photos, announcements and other club and model railroad related material for use on the club website. Please contact Jim Ferreria with items for the website, or questions relating to the website. |
| Go to December 2002 Issue | Return to Gandy Dancer Index | Go to February 2003 Issue |
| General News | HO Scale News | O Scale News | Test Your Word Power |
Saturday, February 8th, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Sunday, February 9th, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Please note that our closing time will be earlier than the closing time for the show. Signup sheets for this event are available. Sign up today!
Friday evening February 14th is the informal "stop by" session. The more "official" open house is on Sunday, Feb. 16, from 11 AM to 3 PM, more or less. HO scale members are welcome to attend and run for this event.
Orchard Supply Hardware's annual event. Saturday, March 1st and Sunday, March 2nd. Hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM for both days.
Saturday, March 22 and Sunday, March 23; 21st All-American Get Together.
This list should be all of the shows that we will be doing between the first of the year and the Fair. Please note that we will not be open for the Good Guys show in early June.
We had a very good turnout for the Saturday, November 30 session for GATS. Sunday turnout was a bit less, but we did end up with enough members to cover our staffing requirements. Thank you to all of the members that took time to participate in running both layouts for this event. The visitor counts were 1,951 on Saturday and 1,372 on Sunday for a total of 3,323 visitors over the two days. Thank you to Gloria and Paul Newhouse for bringing in a large and very welcome box of doughnuts on Sunday. Also thank you to Andy Herrera for the cookies on Saturday.
Due to the annual club potluck falling on the first Friday of December, there was no business meeting. Therefore there are no meeting minutes for December either.
The January Business Meeting will be held on January 3, 2003. Big Bertha will be fired up for the usual pre-meeting grilling session, weather permitting.
The annual club holiday potluck was held on Friday, December 6th. We had a good turnout including several spouses of members. Many thanks to all who attended and brought in all of those scrumptious goodies for all of us to sample and enjoy.
Membership Dues are Now Due.It's that time of year again, please see the Treasurer and ante up! Members are reminded that dues are $24 per year. Dues will become delinquent soon! |
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Club issued badges, for 2003, will be soon be available for those who have paid their 2003 membership dues.
For the last few years, club members had the opportunity to purchase vests to be worn for shows and other club related functions. Since a number of new people have joined the club since the last vest order was sent in, we are exploring the idea of putting together a new order for club vests.
The cost of the vest is $25.00 and includes a railroad logo of your choice. XXL costs an additional $2.50. The vest features the RR logo in the left breast pocket area. The member name is in the right breast pocket area. The club initials are across the back of the vest. Members purchase their vests and the club pays for the embroidery of their name and ACCRS on the vest.
A variety of embroidered railroad logos are available including the following examples: Amtrak, Cotton Belt, Lehigh Valley, Milwaukee Road, New York Central, Northern Pacific, Pennsylvania, Rock Island, Santa Fe and Southern Pacific. Many other heralds are also available.
Those with Internet capability may wish to visit the vendor website.
If you are interested in ordering a vest or want more information about the vests please see Dean Lewis.
According to the calendar posted adjacent to the dispatch panel, which shows the scheduling of Analog and DCC running for Friday evenings, the schedule for January is as follows:
Analog: |
Friday, January 3; Friday, January 17 and Friday, January 31. |
DCC: |
Friday, January 10 and Friday, January 24. |
(The letter "A", on the calendar, denotes an analog run night. The letter "D", on the calendar, denotes a DCC run night).
The following remarks are from the Phoenix Project Manager.
Progress has been a bit slow this month due to the holidays. There has been some progress on the elevated roadway and additional progress behind the scenes in other areas but this is not apparent to the casual observer. Please be patient there will be visible progress in January. We would also again like to invite anyone interested in contributing ideas, research, planning, building, landscaping, time or any or all of the above all, please contact us.
We need help with the street car system signaling, stations, grade improvements, stations/stops, and operational yards, as well as the planning, installation and testing of the automated street, planning for streets and traffic lights, and much more. We are especially interested in ideas that show or animate "activity" and bring visitor attention to areas in and around the City and industrial areas. As an example, abandoned buildings or streets, stationary railroad cars in sidings, without "activity around them" however prototypical, do not hold viewers attention for very long and take up precious real estate. There must be attractive alternatives. If we can apply some collective creativity, I guarantee we will all enjoy the results.
Now is the time to help. Complaints or great ideas will be much less helpful later, so please don't wait. Wherever your skills and interest lie, we are eager and grateful for your assistance in completing this project.
To each and every member, have a great new year.
--Detlef Buescher
The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.
How the year has whizzed by us again. Just think we have less than six months before the Fair is upon us once again. Doesn't seem that long ago we closed the last one. Anyway, we still have the Home and Garden Show, Orchard Supply "How to Fair", and The Good Guys Car Show between now and the Fair.
We will have our first HO meeting of the year on Friday January 3rd. We will go over the city project and projects that connect the town. Any other projects that need attention can be brought up at the meeting.
I want to thank all of you who participated in the GATS event. We had a very good turnout and I heard a lot of good comments from folks on both our layouts.
Just a reminder that we should stick to our schedule of DCC and Analog run nights in fairness to all our HO members. We have a calendar with scheduled run dates near the dispatch panel as a reminder of what operation is on the schedule for each Friday.
I look forward to a good year for our club and the coming events. So, till our next meeting, Happy New Year to you and your families.
--Andy Herrera, HO Trainmaster
No news to report for this month.
Listed below are the answers to last month's questions about American railroad slang. Some terms refer to people and others to equipment, facilities or actions.
One glance at the upcoming events section of the newsletter indicates that once again the club has an active agenda over the next few months. The good news is that the events in the first few months seem to be clustered together, with a stretch of relatively quiet time leading up to the annual Fair in June.
Everyone should take some time, now, to check that item of equipment that has not been run in a while, but will be during one of the shows. Nothing is more frustrating for the owner of said equipment and others, both members and visitors, during a show than having the entire layout grind to a halt due to a faulty or untested locomotive or other piece of equipment. The time for pre-show cleaning, tune-ups and testing is before, not during a show. It seems that some members do not understand this concept and everyone suffers as a result.
I would like to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
-Bob
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Fans of the Orchard Supply Hardware calendar will be able to add to their collections as the 2003 OSH calendar will be available again this year starting December 26th. This year' calendar features a special pull-out poster and a page of coupons. Larry Fisher is the artist for the 2003 calendar. Click on the calendar image, at left, for more information. |
The Classification Yard is a recurring section of The Gandy Dancer. This area is where members may list items to buy, sell or trade. This months offerings are HO scale locomotives.
B&O GP9, Phase-III (1-48 inch fan), with dynamic brakes, B&O Road No 6598. In as delivered paint with Baltimore & Ohio spelled out on the hood. Proto-2000. Slightly used $45.00.
B&O GP-7, freight road switcher. In the as-delivered paint scheme with Baltimore and Ohio spelled out on engine. Proto-2000 with all the normal Proto features. Road No 730. Slightly used $45.00.
If you are interested in either of these items please contact Seth Abrahams.
This report is the fifth in a series of reports on railroad-related sites and both rail and non-rail related museums visited by the editor during his recent vacation. The following article covers various preserved railroad stations in the Grand Island and Hastings, NE area.
Of the four major stations that once served railroad passengers in Grand Island and Hastings, Nebraska, three have been preserved. The Grand Island Union Pacific station was demolished several years ago. The other three stations still survive and are currently in use for various functions.
The former C.B.& Q. station in Hastings opened in 1902 and is still in use as a passenger station. Amtrak's California Zephyr stops at the station on a daily basis. By 1996 the station had deteriorated and was in need of restoration. The Dutton-Lainson Company acquired the building and restored the station and associated grounds to their early 1900's appearance. The restoration included attention to the historic appearance of the station. The former baggage room was renovated and currently houses the Amtrak ticket office, restrooms, and waiting room. The former station agent's office, waiting room and restaurant have been renovated and now serve as Showcase, Dutton-Lainson's retail home products division showroom. The company is very concerned that train passengers receive a favorable impression of the company, the station belongs to them, and community and they take great pains to make sure that the waiting room is open for passengers regardless of the arrival time of the Zephyr.
The former UP station in Hastings is currently a Mexican restaurant with a railroad motif. The restaurant is known as Margarita Pete's. On the street side of the station is a former Rock Island caboose. Until a few years ago UP trains passed the station on a daily basis. A track relocation project rerouted the UP mainline to the Northeast of the downtown area, so trains no longer pass the station. As part of the UPHS convention tours a lunch stop was made at this restaurant. If you are in Hastings, this is a good place to eat, if you are craving Mexican food.
The Grand Island C.B.& Q. station, Plum Street Station, is now a community center. A nice restoration of the station building has resulted in a beautiful building. The main waiting room serves as a meeting space or location for various events such as wedding receptions. Despite being used by the signal and maintenance departments for several years. The floor tiles and wainscoting are original to the building and only required cleaning to return to their former beauty. The former express building houses two tenants. The north end of the express building houses a Grand Island police substation which means there is a constant police presence and no vandalism was noted. The south end houses the Tri-Cities model engineers, a group of model railroaders that were just starting to construct their layout at the time of my visit. The theme of the layout will be railroads of Grand Island.
As was the case in Hastings there was a track relocation project in Grand Island. With increasing traffic on both the former C.B.& Q. line and UP line through Grand Island the diamond had become a bottleneck for both railroads. A couple of years ago the former Burlington line was elevated to pass over the UP line eliminating the need to stop trains for the crossing. Unfortunately, this project also elevated the track adjacent to the station so that trains now run well above the level of the former station platform. Photos.
The next report will cover the Nebraska Central Railroad in Grand Island, Nebraska.
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